Nightshade
by SherlockWritesFanFics
Summary: The young Khajiit, Elone is raised by a pare of Redgaurds, and grows up an outcast. There is no one to help her when she is kidnapped by bandits. The epic journey of a young Khajiit begins. Rated T for adult content, violence, and language used later in the story.


She was an abandoned 2 year old kitten found wandering the hills of Skyrim. She had white speckled fur and grey feet and hands. A Redgaurd called Mania was very sympathetic toward the wondering child, and wished to take her in as her own. Give the kitten good clothing, warm food, teach her to speak their tongue, and give her a loving family. Danda, Mania's brother, was not keen on taking in the child. He said it looked strange, and it's voice was too high pitched.

"Shut up Danda, we can't leave her here. She'll die!", Mania was on the verge of tears over the orphaned kitten.

"Fine...", came Danda's rough response,"We can take her home, but don't let her get in the way."

"She won't!", Mania nodded, and wrapped the now purring kitten in a blanket. They began their trek across the tundra with a kitten at hand.

The unfortunate thing with the pair of Redgaurds is that they were highly payed assassins, and had no choice but to make a profit of of the foul deaths of others. They had been on their way back from their job when they found the child. They had managed to buy a house, and they were close to escaping the awful art of killing others for money. Mania only needed 200 more gold to set up a small trading post. One last dirty job to freedom.

The whole assassination ordeal ended well. Clean arrow through the eye, and no witnesses. Mania was so joyful to never have to kill again, and she made a vow to make sure that the Khajiit child would never get in to such dirty work. Danda was revealed as well, but he had never been a happy person after their parents died when he was 15. Mania was only 9, and could not understand what was really going on.

She named the kitten Elone after her great grandmother, who was a famed healer in her town so long ago. Danda was content to let the kitten fade in to the background as he drank wine, and mead by the barrel. Mania was worried about his habit, but she had no way of getting him to stop.

Mania managed to hold out on money and food the first winter, but only barely. Business was slow until all of the hunters came in the spring with many pelts to sell. She had a hard time with the amount of money that Danda spent on intoxicating drinks. She confronted him one day about the matter.

"Danda, the drinking has to stop, we don't have the money to support it, especially with the kitten!"

"I am not going to stop anything," Slurred the drunken man.

"Wake up and see what it is doing to us Danda! We can't do this anymore, we need you to stop drinking!"

"Mania, who's we?"

"Me and Elone."

"Well then get rid of Elone, and we can fix this problem,"Danda was smug and cleaver despite his mental state.

"Oh how dare you!" screamed Mania, punching him hard across the face.

She stormed out of the room crying, when she discovered Elone crying from all of the yelling. She apologized to the child, and cuddled with her until she fell asleep. No one was going to take Elone away from her, she was a family member. She was a person as well as a beautiful creature from strange lands. Mania didn't care what it took, but Elone was there to stay.

Sadly the arguments only grew worse, and eventually Mania gave up on talking to Danda. No matter what she did he always got his hands on liquor, one way or another. He would smuggle it in through visitors, or leave the house and sit at the bar all day. She couldn't do anything to fix Danda. He was like shattered glass, not only were the peaces hard to put back together, but even if you did you could never get them to stay.

Elone turned 4 and wished to wander the streets of Dawnstar, their home town. She had explored the house, the yard, found all the best hiding places, and things to climb, but she hated the continuous smell of liquor and she was curious. She was out gardening with Mania one day when she decided to ask.

"Mum, I want to see what's out their," Elone pointed at the space outside the fenced in yard.

"Oh Elone..." Mania strained to find an answer to Elone's question,"tell you what, I could take you to the market in an hour, and you can see the people and houses," replied Mania, hoping that things would not go wrong.

Elone was absolutely excited over the little town visit. She smiled as she walked along holding her mother's hand. She had a ton of questions, and they all were about the most simple things. She asked what everyone was doing, and who they were. She had her first encounter with other children when her mother stopped to speak with a Orc woman, and let her wander on her own.

She walked up to a high elf boy, and introduced herself. The boy was absolutely amazed at the cat, and asked to touch her ears and tail. Elone refused, and the boy started to threaten to cry if she didn't. She was silent at this, she then told him that he could, but only once, never again. He touched her ears, and then he pulled her tail causing her to hiss at him, and that made him yell out. She ran to her mother and said,

"Mummy, I don't like other kids."

"Okay, you don't have to." Replied Mania. She tightly embraced her adopted child.

After that she was scolded by the young boy's mother. She went on about how dare Mania let that beast anywhere near her child, and how dare it his at her son. It took her a long time, and 20 gold to settle the elf. The trip home was bleak, and Elone was not overly excited to go anywhere again for a wile. She still had to leave the house to find clothes, and also because she had to learn to deal with people.

Ever since she began bringing the child out doors, Mania had to explain to everyone the story of how she adopted the Khajiit kitten. The Orc woman had asked if she had a little incident with a Khajiit, and many asked if she stole the child. She always was quite embarrassed by any such assumptions and, Mania had a fairly rehearsed version of the story to tell everyone.

The years passed and Elone became smarter, and she soon had a knack for hunting. Although it was rare, occasionally Danda would sober up so that he could hunt, and as soon as Elone herd about it she asked to come with him. Danda thought it was absurd and strange for a Khajiit to go hunting for elk and dear, but after she asked for long enough she started to train with a bow.

Mania helped her with it because if Danda was out hunting with the kitten often, he was sober. Danda grew attached to the child he grew accustomed to calling fur ball. She did not care what he called her as long as she could hunt with him.

By the time that Elone was 13 years old it became clear that she was an outsider, a outcast, a nobody in her own opinion. She had no say in the matter so she went with it. She let the others call her a freak, a pussy cat, and a monster... No one was going to accept her in the least, and she had better things to do than make anyone do any such thing. Mania was slightly worried about the antisocial girl, but at least she could hunt.

One rainy day of the Second Seed, Elone was out stalking a particularly large dear. She crouched in the bushes, and used hand signals to ask if she could take the dear. Danda nodded. She breathed slowly in as she drew the bow very slowly. She could feel every muscle at work, and see every weak spot of the dear. She had the choice of the eye, the heart and the spine, and different spots were better at different times.

The eye was a very small area, and if the missed and ended up in the dears nose, the animal would end up being killed slowly of blood loss or infection. It was rare to take that shot. The spine was fairly reliable, but if she went over it she would scare the dear, and if she went under it it might miss all the vitals. The heart was a good shot, because it was a large organ, and at that moment it was a easy shot.

She landed the arrow, and the dear shot its head up and looked around. It was close to bolting when it simply collapsed. It was rare to get such a perfect shot, and Elone was swelling with pride. They ran up to their kill, and Danda drew the butchering knife when a sword was held to the back of his neck. Danda gasped at the cold mettle blade.

"Stand and drop your weapon,"The man was a Nord, and he wore fur amour.

Elone stood, and lashed her tail as she stared at the men who came out of the bushes at them.

"Oh a kitty, should I skin her and make a rug, or mount her head on my wall?"the man did a sarcastic mocking voice.

"Leave her alone,"Danda growled.

"Oh the man who killed our dear is protecting the wench who was with him,"another man with a helmet covering his face said.

"I shot it,"Elone nearly whispered.

"What?"The first man asked,"Speak up kitty kitty, I can't hear you."

"I killed it!"Growled the Khajiit.

"Oh she is feisty,"said a man who seemed to have a Khajiit accent,"Rather than a rug, I could make her my wife."

"Shut up Omar,"said a dark elf with a horned helmet.

"Oh I can't be a playful kitty for once?"Omar chuckled at his own words.

"No,"replied the elf.

"No one can have fun around here it's all serious business, and 'oh Omar, you stupid cat, shut up'. It's annoying,"Elone found them discussing with there crude jokes.

The bunch of bandits talked a bit more before deciding to take Elone with them, and leave Danda with the dear.

"Think that this girl could be more useful with us than any dear,"said the one with a helmet.

"You can't do this!"yelled Danda. They ignored him, and Elone stayed silent.

"Personally I think she's cute,"mused the first Nord.

"The boss won't be overly thrilled if we bring a girl rather than a dear..."said the elf.

"I could say that she is my long lost sister?"said Omar with his thick Khajiit accent.

"Just grab her and let's go, we have five rabbits, and a pheasant, we'll be fine,"the Nord motioned to the trees.

That is what they did. The Nord bound her hands, and Omar carried her when she wouldn't move her feet. Danda was knocked out after he threatened to follow them. Elone was scared out of her wits, but she did not say a thing. She was soon loaded on to a pack mule and carried away.

"Hey don't worry,"said Omar,"this is how they got me to join them."

Elone said nothing, but began to cry. She felt the warm tears soak in to her fur and get cold in the rain that soon began. Omar tried repeatedly to get her to speak with him, but not a word came from her mouth. It all felt hopeless, and even beyond that. She worried about Danda getting home before night fall, and about Mania handling her disappearance. She worried what these people would do to her.

"Y'know you have a strange accent for a Khajiit,"said Omar,"Are you an orphan? Were you raised by that guy, or are you just half Khajiit?"Omar was trying to be nice, and maybe he was just like her.

"I am an Orphan, that guy was my adoptive mum's brother,"muttered Elone.

"Oh I see,"said Omar,"my parents were cut down by Thalmor when I was 10. I had no choice but to make my living here when they kidnapped me and brought me to our base. I guess this life suited me."

"How old are you?"Elone had only met other Khajiit a few times, and she was very interested to know about him.

"20, You?"

"13,"she muttered.

"Well please just know that we don't kill people,"said Omar. She wondered if he was lying to make her feel better.

She was brought to their base, and put in a cell with a bed. She didn't care where she was, she was alone...

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**Thanks for reading I will update soon, and don't worry I hate cliff hangers too. **


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